Go Commando 5K Adventure Race

 

 

Team Ortho launched into new territory Saturday, September 18th when they held the inaugural Go Commando 5K Adventure Race!  Participants did a 5K run, all while doing 10 super-fun, muddy, wet and challenging adventures!

 

Runners had to climb hay bales, logs and slide down through fast tubes of water that took them into a pit of mud!

 

 

 

 

When I woke at 5am this morning to get ready for the Team Ortho Go Commando 5K Adventure Race it was only 45 degrees.

We I got to the race side about 7:30 I could see my breath but I knew it would be warming up soon, as soon as the sun decides to come out! After a few sprinkles it decided to do just that.

 

 

 

 

The first wave was at 9:00. The participants run around a field and up to and over Hay Fever Ridge, the round hay bales. Not a tough obstacle due to the hay bale steps on both sides.

I really liked the fact that the participants of this race were not only of all ages, but also people of different sizes. I think a lot of the runners were here just to have fun, not finish first. There were people of all fitness levels. Some people walked the race and some people ran the race.

 

 

 

 

The next obstacle was the Black Hole, which was a 48” climb through conduit pipe. Next the the Log Jam forced racers to go up and over a pile of logs.

These to ladies wanted to pose for me. They were definitely here to have fun, and they did!!

 

Up next, The Serpent, a serpentine path up the side of a hill. The path has been mowed through the 3.5 ft high prairie grass. Then Into the Wild. which is a run up, run down, run up, run down through rows of pine trees on a surface of pine needles. I heard from many participants that this was the hardest part of the course. But the next obstacle allowed them to sit down… Over the Falls is a water slide down the side of a hill. Mud wedgie anyone? There were plenty of them going around!

Next up, Run the Sahara, running over several natural mounds of sand up the side of a hill.

 

 

 

The Minefield, a field of car tires to jog through, definitely took some causalities. I saw more then one person end up face down on top of the tires! And we all know that it’s only human nature to laugh at someone ending up on their face for almost any reason!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fire in the Hole, entailed running down a path, hopping over some burning logs. I saw a few people run around this one, afraid of the fire I guess. No worries runners, the swamp is just right around the corner!

 

 

 

For Swamp Commando some people tried to go along the edge of the swamp while others jumped right in! This girls was the first female to cross the finish line (2nd over all) and she had no problem diving right in and having fun with it! That’s what we like to see, you go girl!!!! Many people lost their shoes in the mud, just got sucked right off their feet as they were running through. No one much cared by that time, the shoes were already ruined and the finish line was only feet away.

 

 

Once the participants crossed the finish line some went to hose themselves off but everyone used there coupons for a free hotdog and a free beer. People who had finished the race sat in the grass near the course watching the rest of the waves come through. There were over 700 runners in this adventure race, and all the ones I saw crossed the finish line with a smile on their face. I’m sure a lot of these racers will be back next year, I’ll be there again too!

Holy Angels Football

 

 

If I could choose, today, to be anything it would definitely be a sports photographer. From what I hear it’s really hard to get into unless you know someone though. Also, I believe, in sports photography it is really imperative you have the best of the best as far as equipment goes. You need fast lenses and multiple cameras to keep up with the action. Many times you will also have low lighting which is another reason you need a camera that can handle a high ISO and still produce high quality images.

 

 

 

 

 

I have some kick ass lenses but there is still one more I need, and I definitely need to upgrade my camera. Of course either of these will set me back many thousands of dollars but I’m working on them!

 

 

 

 

 

I had the opportunity to shoot the Holy Angels high school football game at the Star Dome. A friend, of a friends sister, (isn’t Facebook grand?) hooked me up with access to the sideline. (See you do need to know someone.)

 

 

 

 

Weather.com was calling for rain and I was praying it would stay away. Well it did, you know, until game time! I didn’t have rain gear for my camera but I was going to figure it out when I was out on the sideline. I did have rain gear for myself, I’ll just tuck it up under my coat between plays and hope for the best, I thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well it rained the whole first half but lucky for me the video guy, who was my hook up to get in, had an extra rain bag for his video camera and he let me borrow it. I love the rain, I love football, I love football in the rain but I don’t love rain on my camera, at all! But I learned that a little rain on my equipment it’s the end of the world, but I will be buying my own camera rain gear real soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

None of the players or spectators seemed to mind the rain. The players were definitely focused on the game, the cheerleaders kept smiling and the spectators where loud and proud of their Holy Angels football team, rain or no rain, they still came out.

 

 

 

 

 

The Holy Angels Stars scored first, but missed the conversion. At half time the score was 6-0. In the second half New Prague Trojans scored a touchdown but made the extra point, score now 6-7. Holy Angels were unable to score again so New Prague took the victory.

 

 

 

 

As you can see the coach was not happy being a few minutes away from a loss and did not like a call the officials made. I could see he is very passionate about his football team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do hope to shoot some more games as well as other sports. Maybe even meet some people in the sports photography world who can help me to gain access into more venues. But for now I enjoyed this night and would love to be back for their home coming game in two weeks. Well see what happens!

Minneapolis Duathlon

 

 

 

After completing the Lucky 7K in March I decided to sign up for a couple more of the Team Ortho races. I will be doing the Monster Dash in October which is a 10 miler and I also signed up for the Minneapolis Duathlon – Fun Course.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 weeks before the duathlon I decided to go ahead and do it to see what my time would be. Then my training would focus on improving that time.

 

 

 

The next morning I woke up with a bit of a pain on my right side. Didn’t really think to much of it. Was taking that day off training, anyway, because I worked so hard the day before. The day after that it still hurt but being the person I am I decided to run anyway. Well the pain got worse and worse and after 15 minutes of running I decided I couldn’t do that anymore. Next day, did the cycle class at the health club, it hurt but not that bad. Ya know, I think I’m invincible so I kept working out until the 5th day when the pain progressed to my back.

 

 

 

OK, I thought, maybe I should get this checked out. Now it hurts like hell to breath deep and it kills when I sneeze. Fine, I hate going to the doctors but I need this better so I can keep going.

Doctor had bad news… he told me I had an inflammation in my lung.

“So, since I’m training for a duathlon does that mean I have to stop for while.”

 

 

 

“You’re training for a duathlon? That probably is what caused it. You have to stop training and rest about 2-3 weeks.” he says.

“Well the duathlon is in 3 weeks, does that mean I won’t be able to do it?”

“Probably not.” as he’s looking at me. “You CAN NOT work thru it, you have to rest!” Damn, I’m thinking how did he know I was thinking that? LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I agreed I would not train. Well after 3 weeks of pain while breathing, coughing or sneezing it got better. But not well enough to run in the duathlon. I was very disappointed to say the least! I will be there next year tho and now I have a whole year to work on my time.

 

 

 

 

 

I did go down and take some pictures though. Which also gave me a better understanding of the transitions between running and biking. But watch out Monster Dash cuz I’m gonna be ready!

 

 

Back to work…

 

 

Well this week I attended Snow Busters, which is our annual kick off meeting to start off the season. This year it was in New Hampshire where our corporate office is. A good time was had by all, but I’m going to go with “what happens in New Hampshire, stays in New Hampshire.” LOL Especially since I maybe the one they would be talking about!

 

 

 

So since I don’t have all that many pictures from New Hampshire I decided to post some of my deicing pictures from last season.

 

 

 

I, of course, took pictures here in Minneapolis, but my company also flew me to Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to shoot the operation there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am hoping, and it has been talked about, that I will be flying to the rest of the stations this season.

 

 

 

 

It’s kinda sad to have summer end but I am ready and excited to get back to work. I probably won’t be blogging as much as I have been because I will be busy with work but I’ll come up with something now and then.

 

Published!!!

 

 

I have gotten a few pictures published before, but usually it’s only one at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

A few days ago I received an email from my Creative Writing Instructor that told me I was published in North Hennepin Community College’s Under Construction Magazine. I was excited I to hear that, I submitted 8 pictures hoping to get one selected. I went up to the college to pick up a few copies of the magazine.

 

 

 

 

 

I got out to my truck and paged thru the magazine in search of one of my images and I was pleasantly surprised but also amazed that I actually found 4 of my images among the pages!!! No one ever gets 4 in at once in this magazine. Finally I found subjects they appreciate and like well enough to get me published again.

 

 

These are the four images here. I hope you like them…

Family Fun

 

Nothing like a BBQ to get the family together! Since me and my brother were down in Sleepy Eye, my Auntie decided to have a BBQ and invited everyone. She was busy that day making “bean” bags with rice for the bean bag toss game. My uncle made the platforms with the holes.

 

 

 

Tons of family fun! BBQ, good food, games and grandma, aunties, uncles, cousins… doesn’t get any better!

 

 

 

 

Too bad it doesn’t happen more often, and too bad Mom didn’t make it!

Schell’s Brewery Tour – A Copper Kettle and Free Beer

 

 

My brother was in town for two weeks and we went down to Sleepy Eye, MN to visit Grandma. One of my cousins took us to New Ulm for a tour of Schell’s Brewery. I’m not sure if I would call it much of a tour, they talked about how the control of the brewery was passed down thru the family, then showed us a large copper kettle that cost $25,000 way back around 1885 (when the family mansion cost $5,000 just a few years before), and then gave us a beer taste test. LOL Not much of a tour. I would have liked to see more of the process of brewing. Maybe there are too many secrets in there…

 

 

 

We were able to try about 6 different beers they brew and then we could pick any flavor and get a full class of beer of that. I didn’t care for too many of them, Firebrick was about the only one I cared for.

 

        

 

A large 12 pack of beer &

the famous copper kettle! LOL

Isanti County Fair

 

I am definitely a bigger fan of the smaller county fairs then the Minnesota State Fair, although this one was really small! Since I went on a Friday there were not to many people there but I was surprised by the number that was there.

It was fun watching the smaller kids on the little rides. The girls expression to the left just made me smile. They were having a good time on the ride, that is for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The thing I liked most was watching the teenage females doing the barrel races. You could really get a feel for how comfortable the rider was with their horse when they went to turn around those barrels. Actually, you could also tell how comfortable the horse was with the ride that was directing them around the barrels. I think they can detect any nervousness in the rider.

 

 

 

The horse pictured above is the smallest one I saw in the barrel race, but it did really well.

 

 

 

One of the main reasons I wanted to go to this fair is because of the promise for a skateboard park and all the great shots I could get there. Well, the set up was so lame I didn’t even bother to get out the camera. Maybe next time…